We asked SRDS.com users, “What advice would you give to new graduates looking for a media job at an agency?”

We found out that the most marketable skills of today's students aka tomorrow's media directors are:

1. Media research knowledge
2. Digital/mobile/social media advertising savvy
3. Adaptability and flexibility
4. Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
5. Excellent communication

Media professionals also stressed the importance of willingness to learn and openness to new opportunities. As the media landscape continues to evolve, it’s important that we continue to evolve with it. At Kantar Media SRDS, we're dedicated to providing the information and data needed to compete in to today’s advertising world.

At SRDS, we love media, but we also LOVE Halloween!

Each year we like to have a little bit of Halloween fun. Some folks like to dress up and others like to deck out their desks! Visit SRDS on Facebook to see more pics from last year's Spook Out Your Space contest.

This year our Work.Fun.Give team will also be hosting Halloweenie, a hot dog lunch for employees with proceeds going to benefit our corporate charity UNICEF.

Any fun Halloween plans? Any great costume ideas? Either way, have a fun and safe Halloween weekend!

For this week’s Friday Fun, we’re happy to share that in the 3rd quarter of 2012, Kantar Media SRDS employees raised over $1,700 for our corporate charity: UNICEF! Our "Work.Fun.Give" Team—a group of employees who plan fun office activities and find ways to give back to the community—hosted small fundraising events throughout the quarter. 

For example, we recently held a Basket Raffle where departments teamed up to create themed baskets filled with great gift items, with the resulting donations given to UNICEF. We also enjoyed a few afternoon fundraisers (Thirsty Thursday!) and, most recently, a Fall Bake Sale where employees brought in baked goods with our favorite Fall flavors like apple, cinnamon and pumpkin. Everything looked and tasted amazing.

The giving doesn’t stop there! The Work.Fun.Give Team also hosted a Back-to-School Supply Drive to benefit schools in the Chicago area near SRDS HQ.

The Kantar Brighter Futures program supports UNICEF projects in Malawi, Bolivia and Bangladesh. We’re happy to help out these great causes, and certainly have fun doing it. Have a great weekend!

When I first saw this PRNewser article via Mediabistro about changing the “I ♥ NY” logo, my first reaction was, “What?! Why? How could you?!” If you have a symbol widely known and easily recognizable throughout the world, why would you change it?

In a campaign by BBDO, there’s a fun play on the logo replacing the ‘♥’ with different items that show all that NY has to offer – hot air balloons, beaches, vineyards, Niagara falls, etc. See the new ad here or below.

I started wondering why I had such a strong reaction to the NY logo change (I’m from Chicago, after all), and thought, why do we care when companies or organizations change their logos? Remember the 2010 Gap logo controversy that sent preppy fans into an uproar? It was a great example of consumers taking to social media to voice their opinions on a brand. Gap quickly went back to its iconic elegant, white-on-blue serif logo.

Maybe it’s because we live in a state of continual change and evolution that we cling to those icons – those logos – that represent something we’ve always known.

Are you quick to welcome change from your favorite brands, or do you prefer the steadfast images you're familiar with?